[PhireSideZA]

Hi guys

On Wednesday I ordered myself one of these little toys from Takealot, one of our online retailers



Delivery was set for Monday and I also ordered a Class 10 32GB MicroSD card to go with it, for a grand total of R678.00 (AU$68) including delivery. The camera arrived today (Friday), but I haven't really had a chance to look at it all too well.

I am not expecting to be wowed by it, especially not for the price, but I think it should do just fine for the odd paintball excursion or bike ride

I see in the user guide that you can use it as a dashcam as well, but I think low-light performance wouldn't be all that great as it is a relatively lowly 5MP CMOS sensor.

The waterproof housing it came with looks sturdy and well put together, and the buttons on the unit have a plasticky but in a way solid feel to them. I have a feeling it is going to spend lots of time in the housing though as the unit is a glossy black guaranteed to pick up fingerprints and scratches in no time at all.

It shipped with various mounts, amongst others a bicycle handlebar grip (it can be used to attach to my paintball marker barrel as well - eeek!), a surfboard mount, helmet mount, some adhesive pads, a rubber anchor, a mount strap, a helmet band, a remote control and a USB cable.

I'll be sure to chime in once I have a SD card handy that I can use to record some footage

[Dazzler]

Bargain, especially with the waterproof housing.. look forward to some footage (paintball would be entertaining) 

[PhireSideZA]

I am still deciding whether to mount it on the barrel or on my mask, but it will all depend on how well the camera handles shakiness and how smooth the video will come out.

On the barrel I think it might be a bit shaky as there will be extra vibrations from the firing of the marker, but then again it shouldn't be too bad if the mount behaves properly. I had better remember to watch my language from now on

[PhireSideZA]

I took out the camera for a day at the Grahamstown paintball field this past Saturday.

It was quite hot there on the field as the mercury peaked at 36*C, and went down to 31*C by the time we stopped play. This brings me to my first gripe, but arguably this would happen with any camera inside an enclosure: fogging. The inside of the waterproof housing fogged up and made the second round pretty blurry, but not impossible to see. You will see this in the second video linked below. Cleaning it out with a dry rag helps, but not 100%. I will probably get some antifog spray and use that on the interior sometime.

Other than that, it performed well, but I will need to change the mount sometime soon. Because the lens is on the left hand side of the body of the camera, mounting it on the right hand side of my mask meant that half of the image would be filled by my mask. Changing it to the left side of my mask worked, but because then it isn't in line with the paintball marker, you end up looking into the tires more than anything else.

Battery was still good after 45mins of filming, and it showed 3/3 bars on the LCD display. I ran the batteries down when I got home, and total runtime was around 1h50min from a full charge. Since they claimed a 30min battery life, I cannot complain.

The standard bike mount is crap and broke on the first attempt. Methinks a proper GoPro mount is in order if I ever want to mount this on the barrel or anywhere other than my mask.

I filmed at 60fps to try and capture the flying paint as best I could, but I also had to keep the size down as uploading videos on a 512kbps line is proving to be very frustrating, so please excuse the quality. And yes, I played like crap yesterday, but it made for good target practice...

EDIT: In the first video right at the end, I am arguing with my friend who said I shot him while he had his hand up (thus indicating he has been hit and in the process of respawning), but I never did...we still don't know where that shot came from...

The videos should be live in a few hours, as they are still uploading here

Gung Ho Paintball Discount Day - 07 March 2015 (part 1) - YouTube

Gung Ho Paintball Discount Day - 07 March 2015 (part 2) - YouTube

[Phil №❶]

Put a packet of Silica Gel in the housing, that should keep it dry 

[Alasama]

$68 is cheap.
I also bought similar one for my motorbike, and still waiting for a sunny day to try. 

[Dazzler]

  Clear enough. I Had a crayon called monte crysto or something like that which was anti misting years ago!

I see what you meant about the mounting, I was quite tyred by the end!